Thank goodness it cooled down overnight so we could
sleep. We still woke up at 6am though so
got up and made a coffee and ate some leftover cashews and peanuts we still
had. While I uploaded the blogs from the
past three days, Pete dismantled the tent and put the flysheet in the sun to
dry. By 9am we were ready for the road
with everything dry. We said goodbye to
Deb and Dave and the girls and bumped our way for a mile up the drive to the
main road through Thetford Forest.
However, it wasn’t very pleasant as it was quite busy with trucks and
busses as well as cars. Then we joined
an A road as we approached Thetford and it got even busier and more
unpleasant.
We gratefully turned off into Thetford, home to the Dad’s
Army cast and crew during nine years of filming. Any seaside shots were filmed at Great
Yarmouth – still one of the best British comedies.
 |
| Love the old English country houses |
It was already incredibly hot so we found a shady spot under
a tree and spread out the groundsheet to have our breakfast/lunch. We finished that and packed up and started
looking for the road through Thetford Forest to Brandon. It was nearly midday by now and incredibly
hot and unfortunately the forest didn’t give us the shade we hoped for as the
trees were cut quite far back from the road.
It was also very busy and so not a very enjoyable ride at all. We pulled over at Tesco’s in Brandon so we
could get a cold drink as our water bottles were very warm and tasted
horrible. While we were sharing our
coke, a couple of bikepackers in their 60’s pulled up. They were cycling from Wales to Lowestoft and
they very kindly gave us a map they had finished using which took in the area
around Ely.
We were desperate to get on a quiet road but the road
leading out of Brandon was a very busy A road leading past an Air Force Base
with jets taking off continually. The
noise was deafening. We were waiting for
a turn-off I had earmarked to a village called Lakenheath, however when we got to
it, it appeared to just go to the air force base, so we decided to stay on the
busy road. The road was so busy and so
noisy with nowhere to pull over to discuss things, that we were three miles
past the turn-off before I could pull over and say to Pete that we probably
should have taken the Lakenheath turn-off because I remembered seeing on Google
Maps that the air force base made crossing over to the west impossible for
quite a few miles. We decided because we
had come so far to continue with the busy road and take the first turn-off to
the west that came along. But it was a long
time coming and then it turned north rather than west and we felt we were just
going back on ourselves.
Then we had to work our way around RAF Mildenhall as well as
deal with a lot of cars that had been diverted to our quieter road due to road
works on the busier A road. It was very
hot, windy and extremely frustrating. In
one day we had lost our love of cycling in England. It took a long time before we felt we were
making any headway. We decided because
we had gone so far off-track to not bother going to see Ely Cathedral, but we
saw it off to our left and thought it didn’t look too far, so took the next turn
to get there.
We were both incredibly overheated and promised ourselves we
would stop at the next pub for a pint of shandy. Well this must have been the longest stretch
in England without a pub. Slog slog slog
into a headwind with the sun beating down on us and the only thought keeping us
going was that ice cold shandy. At least
we started passing through some villages now that were on the route I had noted
down. We were getting close to Ely and
thought surely there must be a pub in this town when our attention was caught
by the Ely Sailing Club – sailing club?.....that means water. So we pulled off the road and cycled down a
dusty track to find a little jetty with nobody about. The water was a bit murky but at least with
the jetty we could just jump right in and didn’t have to worry about wading
through the green slime at the edge. I
know anybody reading this is probably drooling with envy by now…..yeah
right! But we were desperate so in we
went…….and man it was good!!! Still
could have done with being colder though.
Back on the bikes and about 2 km up the road we found the
pub we’d been looking for and escaped the fierceness of the sun’s rays for half
an hour with a much anticipated pint each.
But at 7 quid for the two, we won’t be making a habit of it.
 |
| Ely Cathedral |
Ely Cathedral as well as the town itself were well worth the
detour and Mary you were right – the Cathedral was the perfect place to be on a
hot day. All that stone made it lovely
and cool and we lingered in there admiring the stonework and painting for a
good half hour. After we came out we
were both feeling pretty beat, so we lay down under the shade of a tree with a
nice breeze to cool us.
 |
| So nice and cool in the Cathedral But it was getting close to 6pm now so we made ourselves move and went and found a Tesco for our evening supplies. After that we had to endure about fifteen minutes on a busy, noisy road before we were able to use the map the two bikepackers had given us earlier in the day and turn off into a village and start following a quiet road. We had picked out a campground in the village of Earith but it seemed to take forever to get there. Finally rolled in just before 8pm having done over 90km and not having eaten since our brunch just before midday. No wonder we were shattered but it was almost too hot to eat. |
Cool showers were first on the agenda then a very healthy
and delicious dinner of Tesco quiche and salad.
Finished off with a coffee and pastry before writing up the blog. Today has been a real slog but the last 20km
gave us hope that there are still nice quiet roads to be found in England – we
just need a map to make sure we find them.
Footnote: Yes…today
wasn’t enjoyable. The A roads are definitely not for cycling, although you do
see people out on racing bikes, training. However, you are taking your life in
your hands by doing it. Firstly, just the amount of traffic reduces the
opportunity to enjoy the countryside.
Secondly, the trucks and cars either wait until there is a break in the
action from the opposite direction, or they start taking chances by speeding
past and cutting in on us at the last minute.
For people like us who have been doing this a long time, it’s scary, but
for someone beginning cycle touring, or older folk, it’s downright horrific
seeing a 40 ton truck suddenly weave over squeezing you off the road. The B
roads are now, virtually the same. There
are of course these kinds of roads in some places which don’t have such high
traffic flow, but they are becoming fewer all the time, as people live an even
faster pace of life nowadays. Introducing someone from the beginning of the
last century, when cars were first on the road, cruising along with no one else
around, at 15mph, would scare them to death. So, we have to find these smaller
lanes and even these have the idiots on them, who pay no heed to struggling
bikepackers. The hedgerows are full of
nettles so trying to pass anything means, as the “lesser form of transportation”
you are pressed over and closer to these stinging plants. We’ve spoken on this tour, to guys who are in
their seventies and eighties, who are still riding and they have said that the
enjoyment is diminishing, due to road congestion, speed and dangerous drivers.
If that continues only the most remote parts will see a fully laden cycle
tourer trying to capture a piece of yesteryear.
No comments:
Post a Comment